Take A Peek….

(2) It’s the newest incarnation of a site done by our coblogger Justin Delabar. He has been busy the past few months and we ONLY just learned that our email address to him was outmoded and there were some problems with his codes. But he may be contributing more to TMV now that we’ve ironed these things out.

The Digital Diplomat is a must for those interested in foreign news and foreign policy. Posts vary in length and report of comment on serious foreign issues. For instance, read this post on migration in the post-911 era and the era of globalization.

Justin Delabar’s special area of graduate study is foreign relations. Whether you agree with his take on X event or not, you’ll be getting a viewpoint that is not influenced by Sean or Randi’s radio shows but by his own study and consideration.

Take A Peek

The Dilby News Monitor was one of those sites that took the format of the You-Know-Who Report and adapted it with a perspective that wasn’t of that of someone rooting for one political party in America’s electoral wars. In fact, on some controversial issues you could say it was an equal opportunity offender.

It’s original website contain tons of news links, story links, some blog links, streaming video, and reference links etc. The reality, though, is that websites with that particular format (except the original) have not had a long shelf life. Perhaps part of the problem is that these lesser known news aggregator sites get fewer links because they don’t offer a lot of original content so unless they spend a lot on advertising its hard for their readership to grow.

So now Dilby has revamped the format to a more standard blog format — and we have moved it from Other Voices on our blogroll to Center Voices. It promises to be a highly outspoken weblog that offers some key news headlines on top of the site, comment on news and comment on other matters as well. In short: given its track record for offering a solid menu of news, the revamped Dilby News Monitor promises to offer some delicious courses for reading and discussion — news plus original content. And we suspect it is going to grow.

Take A Peek….

We’ve featured lots of sites and weblogs for our readers in our TAPs. But we haven’t featured a big, still-growing conservative site in a long time — one that offers consistent analysis that is quite informative even if you don’t agree with all of the person’s positions or belong to his party.

We realize that there are some readers out there (and a good number of bloggers out there) who believe that if someone writes an opposing idea you will get brain cancer if you read, link to or respect it. No one who contributes to TMV feels that way (in fact, we disagree often with each other) and, clearly, neither does Morrissey.

Morrissey’s site has become one of TMV’s “must read” sites (and is on the list of several cobloggers here as well). If you’re a regular reader, you’ll note that we have often quoted and linked to him and not just when we do the long roundups. That’s because he lays out an issue so well and then shows you why he reaches the conclusion he does.

And now, as he notes in this post, Morrissey celebrates his third anniversary on a site that began small and has had 23 million visitors.

It’s probably because although Morrissey makes no bones about being a dedicated Republican and conservative, he’s clearly given readers his take on events in posts that don’t read like some websites on the right that seemingly regurgitate conservative talk radio or sites on the left that seemingly regurgitate Air America.

So if you’re a Democrat, don’t expect that you’ll agree with him but you will see why he concludes what he does. And, if you’re a Republican who expects to see virtual RNC rip-and-reposts, you will be disappointed.

But if you want to know what a conservative is thinking on a given issue then you’ll want to read Morrissey and his take which always includes a tightly-written statement of the issue, his analysis and his conclusion. Links from bigger sites can only take a new blog so far; Morrissey’s site has grown because he doesn’t just offer readers a partisan diatribe.

That’s why — whether you agree with him or not — if you Take A Peek at Captain’s Quarters we know you’ll be taking a daily (or more) peek.

Take A Peek…..

There are a few anti-you-know-who-Report sites around that have survived and others have vanished. But Hinessight is one that truly looks destined to survive — because once you use it, you get hooked. Drudge is anchored in underlying Republican assumptions and Hinessight has more of an independent and Democratic perspective.

But it is updated constantly, its selection of links is solid, and there is an easy, comfortable look to it.

Take A Peek at Hinessight and we KNOW you’ll be taking more than a daily peek because you’ll be hooked.

Take A Peek….

Moderate Voters has been nice enough to choose TMV for a Blogad from time to time (we do NOT solicit advertisers and all of our blogads come from Blogads itself). TMV himself has visited that site often and it was always an excellent source of info and a must read.

Well, just Take A Peek and you’ll become addicted. It’s now organized in a way that makes it a MUST read….several times a day, chock full of well-organized and comprehensive news links, offered in a way that makes it highly accessible. Who needs The You Know Who report when you have Moderate Voters.Org?

Take A Peek…..

This is a constantly updated site “all national races in the United States, as well as governor election predictions.” We just added it to our Other Voices blogroll because we just discovered it yesterday and we’re already addicted. It’s laid out well with colors making party membership quickly identifiable.

If you’re a political junkie (and chances you are, if you’re reading this site) then Take A Peek at Elections Predictions — and we KNOW you’ll be taking daily peeks!

Take A Peek….

We get emails from readers all the time wanting to know about other moderate and centrist sites. We usually wait a while before we do a Take A Peek on a new site — but this one looks highly promising and truly deserves to be launched with reader sampling.

At the top of the site Moderately Thinking proclaims:

It is said that “truth” is relative. Unfortunately, much of the “news” and opinions we find today is only relatively true. Make no mistake, I am not simply reporting news items. I do give my opinions, which are relative to what I find to be “true”. My intent is to get people to think critically and seperate fact from opinion which is presented or repeated as fact…

Add Moderately Thinking to the list of sites that offer more than hurling adjectives at one party or another — one that tries to work through issues. It’s one to watch.

Take A Peek….

…at TMZ.COM the celebrity and show biz news site that broke the Mel Gibson arrest story — by posting Gibson’s anti-semitic comments (Gibson has since profusely apologized for them. See our posts chain linked to this post).

TMZ is another example of the power of instaweb news publishing. With the touch of a button this info was put on the web on Time-Warner-AOL’s solid, celebrity news website that has a solid managing editor — Harvey Levin, a multi-faceted lawyer, producer, investigative reporter and legal analyst.

TMZ’s authentic scoop is important in several ways. It underscores how not only the mainstream news media but now the supermarket tabloids (which have not been booming in recent years) have a NEW competitor on the block. It shows how some enterprise reporting put on the web can instantly impact coverage on the news cycle so that the mainstream media is, in effect, rewriting a web news report.

TMZ’s original reporting has held up (unlike some original web and blog reporting — which sometimes should be taken with a grain of salt as big as the entire Dead Sea). Perhaps the key reason is that as managing editor Levin has both a journalistic and legal background and will not press the FINISH button until he knows he has solid stuff.

Take A Peek at TMZ.COM and we’re sure you’ll feel it deserves a daily peek. More than that, perhaps you, like TMV, will feel that due to its solid reporting in the Gibson arrest case, it deserves a daily (or more) peek.

Take A Peek

…at Dilby News Monitor a site that you might first think is patterned after the Drudge Report — but when you explore it, you realize it gives you so much more.

Unlike Drudge, Dilby isn’t pinned down to being widely perceived as in one political camp. It’s often all over the place. Like Drudge, it’s constantly updated.

Indeed, the GOOD NEWS is that you can get what you’d get at Drudge — plus a whole lot more. News links? Got it. Streaming videos? Got it? A slew of customer service numbers? Got it. International streaming news, womens’ organizations, streaming radio, money, finance, etc. It’s all there. Want to comment on the news? You can do that, too.

But don’t take OUR WORD for it: visit it yourself — and you will become addicted.

Take A Peek at Dilby News Monitor and we KNOW you’ll be taking more than a daily peek.

Take A Peek

….at Kiko’s House, a jewel of a new blog written by Shaun Mullen, an award-winning former Knight-Ridder reporter and editor.

And it is a glory to read: the writing is truly stylish, witty and the topics aren’t what you find on so many other blogs. It does NOT limit itself to the political horserace. And Mullen hasn’t yet fallen into “blogspeak” (of course we haven’t either. Heh.)

We predict Kiko’s House is going to be a big force on the Internet. Why? Because it’s compelling, often witty reading, excellent writing and is refreshingly different. Just scroll down and you’ll see how much unique reading there is. And if you’re a writer and some of the style rubs off on you, you’ll be all the much better for it.

Take A Peek at Kiko’s House and we KNOW you’ll be taking a daily peek.

Take A Peek….

…at the new point/counterpoint style left/right debate blog Swords Crossed.
Swords Crossed is the brainchild of two of the finest political brains on the left and the right: longtime Daily Kos writer Armando (he uses his first name as a pen name) and Josh Trevino, a co-founder of the solid conservative website Red State.Org.

Swords Crossed is new: in fact, its official launch was yesterday. It’s a blog that needs to be read regularly from the top down, since it’s a constant ongoing debate between Armando and Trevino. And a QUALITY DEBATE — the kind that is sorely missing from rage-filled talk radio, many political campaigns and, yes, all too many parts of the blogosphere.

Because if you’re into demonization, four letter words, or people hurling adjectives like “liar” and “fascist” around you’ll probably be disappointed with Swords Crossed. Neither Armando nor Trevino claim that they’re not passionate. It’s just that they show their passion through serious, idea-packed debates…so their enlightened readers can then decide who prevails. They take issues and uplift them.

The new site describes itself as:

“The website of Armando of dKos fame, and TreviÃ±o of Tacitus fame. Swords Crossed: where the Cubanâ€™s the Dem, and the Mexicanâ€™s the Republican!’

But it’s a LOT more than that: it’s one of those RARE websites where
each writer does credit to his respective side’s ideas.

TMV personally saw the two interact last year at a Stanford University blogging conference at which we all spoke. Even while sitting at poolside sipping drinks, Trevino and Armando engaged in a friendly but vigorous discussion where neither one tried to personally destroy the other or call into question his integrity.

Swords Crossed will be hard to link to since it has several posts on the same subject. But we WILL do so periodically (probably with multiple links on a given issue) because it is a vital site to those of us who want to see political debate enriched to where the content of ideas, not borderline slander and pushing emotional and divisive hot-buttons, carries the day.

Swords Crossed should be required reading for political science students, journalists, bloggers, and politicians.

We’ll leave out talk show hosts since many of them would find it boring to read debates where the participants don’t view each other as evil enemies who must be destroyed.

Take A Peek (even if only to make sure this kind of debate thrives…but there are many other reasons) at Swords Crossed and we KNOW you’ll be taking many daily peeks.

Take A Peek…..

…at what bills itself as the first real grassroots website supporting the candidacy of John McCain for President The McCain Movement.

The McCain story continues to be one of the most fascinating political stories of our day — and it doesn’t matter what ideology you have…it just IS.

You have to factor into account McCain’s “maverick” status in 2000, charisma and his positive public image with the fact that in 2006 he is walking a political tightrope. Already you can see that some people on the left don’t trust him and feel he’s a hard-core conservative making noises like a moderate — and that if elected he would usher in four more years of Bushism without Bush. And some people on the right don’t trust him and feel he’s a moderate or deep in his heart he’s even worse: a RINO — and that if elected he would undo the achievements conservatives feel they’ve attained under Bush.

Meanwhile, McCain is openly trying to assure his party’s establishment (including the religiouis right) that he’s a team player and he recently defended Bush on several key issues. That undercuts some of his independent and anti-Bush voter support. So who is he really? And can he navigate through the primaries to carve out enough victories to get the nomination? But if he does that, after running right in the primaries, does he then veer center in the general election? And if he does that, is it a fatal mistake in terms of support he’ll need from his own party’s (distrustful) conservative base?

So it’s a fascinating political saga…and The McCain Movement should help provide some primary source info (it has a blog as well) and other tidbits to help better follow the campaign.

Take A Peek at The McCain Movement and we know you’ll be taking regular peeks…

Take A Peek…..

He writes in an email:”As part of this years studies I am writing a
dissertation on weblogs of a journalistic nature. I have been looking atmany sites that fall into this category, and have also preparedquestionnaires for bloggers and users to answer.”

It sounds like a fascinating dissertation — one that’ll be quoted extensively on weblogs if someone gets ahold of it.

And bloggers and “civilian” (nonblogging) readers of this site can have an impact on its outcome: go the link above and there’s a questionnaire for bloggers and for readers.

Take A Peek at Investigating Journalistic Weblogs and we KNOW you’ll visit and not just take a peek but fill out the questionnaire — and tell all of your friends (bloggers and civilians”) to help him out and also visit and do the questionnaire.

Take A Peek…..

Seriously. It’s written by political thinker and attorney Alan Stewart Carl who created the thoughtful The Yellow Line blog, but retired from it due to time constraints.

He warns that he may not post as frequently on this one, but he wants to get back into blogging with a fresh start and be less constrained by the term “centrist”:

As the tagline says, Iâ€™ll be aiming for somewhere near the center, but that doesnâ€™t mean I wonâ€™t sometimes hit well left or well right. The point isnâ€™t to espouse a consistent Centrist platform, but to avoid espousing the kinds of half-truths and outright untruths spouted mindlessly by so many along the entire political spectrum.

….Too many smart people just parrot what they hear from opinion leaders on â€œtheir side.â€? And too many opinion leaders, particularly in this blogosphere of ours, waste their intelligence in destructive attempts to mold reality rather than using their intelligence to uncover truth. I ainâ€™t going to play that game. Iâ€™m not claiming some grand ability to uncover truth. Iâ€™m just promising not to mold reality for my own political ends.

We always respected anything Stewart wrote because — as he says above — he is what he says he is: he always thinks things through (and is unpredictable on his stances). Just as The Yellow Line was a class act, so is Maverick Views. If you’re looking for a weblog that’ll go after and demonize other bloggers, you won’t find it there. Stewart deals in serious issues and ideas.

Take A Peek at Maverick Views. We did and loved it so much we’re adding it under Center Voices so we can take a peek every day. You’ll want to, too….

Take A Peek….

You’d be surprised how many new sites TMV discovers (and later adds to his blogroll) by being linked by a new site. Today we were fascinated to find this link from Atomic Insights Blog which discusses “energy supplies, energy technology and energy politics from an atomic point of view.” Independent researcher Rod Adams’ blog is serious and issue-oriented. The word “content” was invented for a website like this and it’s a pleasure to know it’s out there…because it will enlighten.

It isn’t a blog with the word “liar” or the word “traitors” in every sentence. There are no posts angrily questioning the motives or agendas of other people who take the time to do weblogs, or questioning whether a politician or weblog writer is really a Democrat, Republican, moderate and actually in fact a RINO, DINO or a hypocrite who claims to look at each issue on an issue-by-issue rather than partisan basis but secretly works to promote one party’s agenda.

This is a blog that centers on serious discussion. You might agree with him or disagree…but you’re not going to find talk show style left/right rants. We are immediately adding it to our blogroll under OTHER VOICES. We obviously can’t add every blog to our huge blogroll but in 2006 we are removing inactive blogs and replacing them so this will happen from time to time..

Former nuclear submarine officer Adams founded Adams Atomic Engines, so this is his field of expertise. Take A Peek at Atomic Insights Blog and we KNOW you’ll be going back to take lots of peeks…

Take A Peek….

We’ve had readers send us great links for some of our posts (especially the pointer posts) and when we ask how they find it…they say Metafilter. And, most assuredly, Metafilter is an addictive “community weblog.” It’s not a Johnny One Note political site (of course, TMV could never be described that way…) but its chock full of so much variety, so many links that you almost can’t tear yourself away from it.

Visit it. We know you’re going to be addicted for life. Take A Peek…and we know you’ll be taking frequent peeks.

Take A Peek…..

One of our favorite blogs is Uncorrelated, a blog by a left and a right blogger….a great up-and-coming-blog that is now ailing due to some database “corruption” problems.

See? Writing a lot about members of Congress can be contagious…

So now Greg Prince has started his own GREAT blog until these problems are ironed out (and it could take a while)…and it’s a wonderful site. Prince is the blogger who writes from the left on Uncorrelated (we have his co-blogger Mick Stockinger’s blog under Right Voices on our blogroll and we’ve added Greg Prince’s to Left Voices).

As in the case of his co-blogger Stockinger, Prince’s site is notable for the fact that it doesn’t just hurl around partisan insult adjectives. It’s for thoughtful people who want to read more about issues and politics. IDEAS — not scoring points for political parties or settling perceived scores with bloggers with whom he disagrees — take top priority. So Greg Prince’s Blog is worth the time of EVERYONE — no matter what their political views.

Take A Peek….

Heavens knows Democrats, Republicans, Independents, and people of all ages are experiencing stress these days (particularly if you are from New Orleans)…and the site The Psychology of Combating Stress, Depression & Addiction has some interesting tidbits. (Hey: stress, depression and addiction — they must be talking about our blog!).

It’s definitely worth a daily read. And it underscores a fact many (including us) often forget: NOT ALL weblogs are POLITICAL. Blogs can deal with many different subjects and they uses the same technology of immediacy — a kind of cross between a newspaper and talk radio. And the topics are timely: take a peek at this post on internet gambling addiction.
Take a Peek at this new psychology blog…and we know you’ll take a daily peek!

Take A Peek….

But it may not be what you think. Just Hillary isn’t an anti-Hillary hatchet job site — or a Hillary-for-President site. Rather, it seems to be a clearinghouse for all kinds of news and blog links related to Hillaryland.

And, indeed, here’s how it defines itself:

JustHillary.com is an independent news site providing the most comprehensive and up-to-date reports about Hillary Clinton. In the Senate, on the campaign trail in New York, testing the waters across the country. JustHillary.com is “All About Her.”

The site’s “agenda” is straightforward: offering the latest news, analysis and commentary about Hillary. Favorable, critical and everything in between.

And it has been created by a professional political writer: Gregg Birnbaum, political editor of The New York Post. Prediction: it’ll be read by Hillary supporters and also Hillary foes like Rush and Sean for material for their three hour radio shows.

Take A Peek and we know you’ll be taking more than a daily peek — especially as we get more into 2006, 2007 and the Biggie Year 2008.

Take A Peek…..

The Captain, Ed Morrissey, has skyrocketed in popularity but it can’t just be explained by his being frequently linked to by InstaPundit and other big conservative sites. The fact is, Morrissey does a couple of things that sets him far apart from many weblogs — conservative, liberal and (we hate to say it) centrist.

For instance, the American media and the emerging Blogtopia shortsightedly ignore foreign affairs. You can’t accuse Morrisey of that. He’s quite diligent in consistently zeroing in on foreign issues, giving you a summary of what’s going on and then giving you his own, blunt but well-thought out take on it. Agree with him or not, he has thought it through and isn’t regurgitating something he heard on the radio or writing something merely to be stylistic.

The same applies for domestic issues. On the Harriet Miers nomination, he stuck by the Bush administration but made it clear he thought it was a terrible choice and a day before Bush withdrew the nomination Miers withdrew her nomination Morrissey said he couldn’t support it because the more he looked into it, the more he didn’t think she was qualified.

Make no mistake about it: he is a Republican, a conservative, and proud of it. But when he does a post he explains why he thinks as he does.

Another strong point: unlike some bloggers on both sides, Morrissey usually sticks to the issues. He doesn’t question the motives, sincerity or beliefs of other people who write weblogs or go after them personally because they happen to disagree with him. He writes about ISSUES and how he differs on ISSUES with political figures or a given blogger. Which is why TMV reads him again and again and suggests you Take A Peek, too.

Of course, many liberals will automatically detest him because of his conservative ideas. Many conservatives will hail him because he has an “R” in front of his name and blasts the left. But TMV reads him because he deals in ideas and writes in a way that makes you think because he is so earnest. Morrissey is also a public speaker and also wrote a great op-ed piece in the Washington Post.

Blogs have ushered in a new era in political debate — creating, in effect, printed word talk radio on the Internet. The WEAKNESS of this concept is the tendency of many readers to only read those with whom they agree — the same “echo chamber” you find on the right and left now on radio talk shows. Captain’s Quarters deserves to be on everyone’s daily reading list — because it’s caffeine for the mind. Even if you’re on the far left and disagree, so what? You’ll survive reading Morrissey making his best case to you. And you’ll be reading posts by someone who can write more than just “liberals, liberals, liberals” or who claims to know the motives or “real” beliefs of writers with whom he disagrees.

Take A Peek at Captain’s Quarters and we KNOW you’ll be taking a daily peek……

Take A Peek….

Watching America has always been one of TMV’s favorite sites, and we have linked to it from time to time. There is no site quite like it on the Internet: it contains excerpts from newspapers and magazines, pieces touching on the United States from all over the world. Many of them are translations of articles that you can’t get anywhere else.

It is indispensible if you want to keep track of U.S. foreign policy or, at the very least, America’s image abroad. It was always a great site, but now they’ve redesigned it: there are more columns so you can look at specific parts of the world PLUS a SUPER list of major foreign press sources and their home pages.

We were pleased yesterday to find that Watching America took out a blogad on our site — but we would have written this anyway to point you to the brand new layout. It’s THAT good.
Take A Peek at Watching America and we KNOW you’ll be taking more than a daily peek………

Take A Peek…..

If the title reminds you of the great HBO series, it should: Deadwood Blog is created by some of the folks who worked on the show and decided to try their hand at a blog:

From the street, the holding area, and our lives with and without Deadwood, this is a blog for Deadwood’s background players. We hope to post about what’s happening with the Background Players, players’ talents, additional gigs, etc… As well, if you have a question that we can help find an answer to, we’ll give it a try, and in the future, with permission, we’ll even try to snag an interview or two with someone in the cast or crew who can better answer your query.

Deadwood is one of television’s most compelling programs and when you Take A Peek at this new weblog you’ll see the diverse non-political subject matter. It’s a fun new site — for fans of Deadwood and those who don’t watch the show (BITE YOUR TONGUE!).

TMV is a big fan of Deadwood and even worked with some of it during his newspaper career.

Take A Peek at Deadwood Blog…and we’re sure you’ll be taking a daily peek…..

Take A Peek….

The Heretik, we predict, has a VERY bright future ahead of it as a site that’s going to get a steady and loyal readership — and it doesn’t matter what party readers belong to. The reason: it is a weblog with an incredible amount of style, so much so that its personality — an “organic,” natural personality that isn’t contrived — screams out at you. At the same time, even though its FUN to read it’s also incredibly informative and skillfully put together as an infopackage. And, unlike certain people with the initials TMV (who are otherwise perfect in every way), The Heretik offers incredibly concise posts. You’ll also get great news and blog links there as well.

Look at THIS post on Karl Rove. No one can accuse The Heretik of falling into “blogspeak” or writing a proforma entry on this, can they? It has pizazz. And you learn some things you might not have known.

Take A Peek at The Heretik and we KNOW you’ll be taking more than a daily peek…

NOTE: Several readers email to say they love our Take A Peek feature so we’ll do more of them. Also, note that we will ROTATE the political ideologies of sites featured.

Take A Peek …

We’ve always loved Sploid, a site in Nick Denton’s Gawker media stable. It’s just what it sounds like: an online tabloid. And who better to edit it, than Ken Layne?

When Sploid first came out it was addicting enough, with its SCREAMING HEADLINES and quickly updated stories. Its one drawback was a design that seemingly limited its number of stories. It seemed to fall a mite short of its potential as an alternative to the You Know Who Report (he with the outdated hat, and original news stories that sometimes don’t turn out to be quite right…with some of them vanishing without a correction or explanation after creating a big fuss on many blogs).
But now Sploid has re-invented itself. Its front page has a LOT of stories — more quickly updated than ever. You can easily sit down at your keyboard and go to Sploid without having to visit….you know…

Take A Peek at the new, redesigned Sploid and we know you’ll be taking LOTS of daily peeks. (Did Uncle TMV ever lie to you?)

Take A Peek…..

…at Crooks And Liars, the liberal video blogger website that just keeps evolving and evolving…and becoming a several-times-a-day addiction the more you read it because it just keeps getting better and better.

We know that this site’s readers include thinking people from many different viewpoints and we MUST say this: it really doesn’t matter if you’re left, right, center — Crooks And Liars is required viewing if you have a computer.

Why don’t we say reading? Well, there is good reading on it. Lots of short, punchy, links and comments on stories (unlike TMV who is also known as Mr. Wordy).

But one of its most endearing qualities is the wide variety of video snippets it offers you, repeatedly, unrelentingly, throughout the day. A serious news clip? Jon Stewart’s stinging monologue? A screech fest on cable between a rightist and leftist? A dramatic announcment by a politico? Chances are you’ll see a short, highly readable post containing a short comment and a link to a high quality video. You can CATCH UP on all the videos you missed. He is also one of a small group of bloggers who puts ORIGINAL REPORTING on his site — thus using the full potential of the weblog as a new media infotool.

Crooks And Liars is the brainchild of professional musician John Amato, who created it while recuperating from an illness. And he has seen it zoom higher than Boy George. The result: Crooks And Liars is now his fulltime job (and Amato occasionally does a no-holds-barred commentary at the Huffington Post).

NOTE: If you like it and visit it, realize that the site’s super-fast growth left Amato with unexpectedly high costs. He’s looking for donations this week and you can make one by CLICKING HERE.

Crooks And Liars is FUN and informative and TMV reads it every day — even on the road. Take A Peek at Crooks And Liars and we’re sure you will be taking 10 or 25 daily peeks…

Take A Peek

…at DC Debate — a sparkling new site we KNOW is going to become a huge hit on the Internet.

DC debate was started by Cornell University student Herbert Ziskend as a kind of political debate website. And it is that — and a lot more.

This is an ADDICTING site. It includes a good mix of items. On many items it gives you a succinct left/right take on the story. It also offers a Liberal Rant of the Day and a Conservative Rant of the Day. They’re always exceptionally well done. So you have a site that’s easy to read, fun to read — and gives you true food for thought (if you are open to other ideas).

There have been various — and valiant — efforts in the past to create sites that offer a left/right inside-the-blog debate before. But DC Debate is probably the one destined to become a hugely popular blog because it’s written in such a tight, interesting and content-heavy way.

It even has a blogroll (although we hope to see a centrist category as well!). We’ve added it to our Center Voices category here because TMV uses his blogroll each day…and he’s ALREADY highly addicted to DC Debate.

Take A Peek…..

The site says “TodaysDemocracy.com is focused on providing facts, opinion, and ideas about factors that influence and shape our Democracy.” Today’s Democracy’s Dean Reese did a great Guest Voice post on our site that was very favorably received. And his normal home at Today’s Democracy looks like an up and coming place with its cool layout containing posts with dates on them to the left and other info on the right.

We liked it so much we recently put it in our Center Voices column on our blogroll (which we USE; our blogroll is not just for show).

Take A Peek at Today’s Democracy and we’re sure you’ll be taking a daily peek…

Take A Peek…..

He’s one half of Uncorrelated, a weblog done by a writer on the left and a writer on the right. That’s why we have on our blogroll in two categories (Right Voices and Left Voices). TMV loves Uncorrelated.

Mick is still working on that site but now he has launched his own personal blog as well, which we’ve added to our Right Voices (we use our blogroll extensively: it is not for show).

What is always great about Uncorrelated is that it covers a wide variety of topics and zeros in on the issues and usually covers them without indulging in name calling. Stockinginger writes for people serious about issues and politics….and ideas. Read this post.

So Take A Peek at Mick Stockinger and we’re sure you’ll be taking a daily peek!

Take A Peek…..

Every commentary on politics or life doesn’t have to be angry or snarky (see all of our posts below…). You CAN occassionally look at things in a more lyrical, and clever style — which is what the highly talented Michael Silverstein does on his site.

We’re run some of his stuff several times because when we read it, it’s so good we feel it must be shared with readers. We could TRY to do it like Silverstein but don’t think we can.

Let’s first try to take the love we get each day in our emails from people on the left and right who won’t agree with us in a post (or the occasional blogger who has lots of time on his hands so he indulges in always silly political psychoanalysis of TMV):

FIRST LET’S DO POETRY BASED ON EMAILS WE GET FROM THE RIGHT

Yeah, right, you’re a moderate

You’re a liberal or RINO

When I read your a dumb site

I just know you’re a wino.

AND NOW POETRY BASED ON EMAILS WE GET FROM THE LEFT

Roses are small

You have a big tushie

Deep down inside

I know you’re a Bushie.

BUT WE WOULD NEVER ANSWER THEM LIKE THIS

I like to eat corn

I like when I shuck it

You define or insult me

Then you can go s— it.

We’re too classy for that…And our efforts somehow lack the dignity befitting this site (or fit in perfectly with it).

We think we’ll leave the clever poetry to Michael Silverstein aka Wall Street Poet. He does it a lot better than we do…

Take A Peek at Wall Street Poet and we KNOW you’ll be taking lots of peeks…..

Take A Peek….

For many years Detweiler has run Maher Studios, which has the world’s most famous and effective how-to-do-ventriloquism course. Several months ago, he concluded that the Internet had hurt his traditional print magazine Newsy Vent’s circulation and that, in any event, it was time to move on. So he sent out the last issue — and moved onto the Internet…to an unusual and wonderfully-written weblog.

It’s done in a highly personal style. It contains some of the things happening in his life, plus things about his fascinating work and some tidbits on ventriloquism.

Yours truly has known Detweiler since 1988 and he’s one of the people who inspired a nice (although not all bloggers think so) Jewish boy from Connecticut who was a professional journalist in San Diego to tinker with “vent” and eventually leave a newspaper career to overtly put words in characters’ mouths. He was used as a sounding board on various personal and professional dilemmas over the years. And he was always inspirational.

Take a break from the political blogs. Take a break from the partisan screaming or bloggers going after other bloggers. Take a break and and explore Newsy Vents (and you might even want to try ventriloquism). Of course, if you read political blogs, then you’re used to reading about dummies……

Take A Peek….

No, it isn’t by Hillary C. Or Jeb B. Or — GOD FORBID — by Dennis K. or Alan K.

It’s by a young centrist blogger who asks the hypothetical question in a recent post: “Do I really expect to be President?” And he self-answers:

Yes, I do. Why shouldn’t I? I have a BA in Political Science, I’m smart, just, and compassionate. I was told by one of my friends, that I’m the most honest person he’s ever known.

We won’t make the expected cheap-shot joke here…about how if you study American history being smart, just, compassionate and the most honest person probably disqualifies you for the Presidency. Why, we wouldn’t stoop that low….

But The Journal Of A Future President is one we’ll visit a lot. Why? Because it’s by a centrist and this site was created to help strengthen centrism and moderates in general and help centrist blogs grow in particular. And, as we’ve said before, we enjoy blogs written by talented young people who think about issues and have ideas but aren’t always burdened by lock-step slogans, buzz words and only-my-side-is-good attitudes (yet).

So DO Take A Peek at the brand new The Journal Of A Future President. And we know you’ll take daily peeks — right up until the swearing in ceremony….

Take A Peek……

TMV means it when he says he loves to read things written by talented young people. The reason: as a college student, TMV got bitten by the writing bug which led to stints on two college newspapers and an internship on The Hindustan Times newspaper in New Delhi, India during his final semester of senior year. And to this day he remembers feeling that his stuff was as good or better than any of the older, established writers who got all the attention and big bucks.

It’s the same with blogs. Because a blog gets more hits than Liza Minelli’s last husband it doesn’t mean a smaller blog done by a perceptive new writer isn’t just as good — or better.

When we explored Foreign Policy Watch and offered to put it on our blogroll we were told overall it might fit into our Left Voices column, so we’ve put it there. But since TMV still loves foreign policy (since after grad school he lived and wrote from India, Bangladesh, Madrid and later, as a San Diego-based reporter for the San Diego Union writing on Tijuana and Baja California) and blogs that write on foreign issues, he will be taking more than a daily peek.

Take A Peek at Foreign Policy Watch — a blog by a writer who you’ll be reading a lot from in coming years — and we know you’ll be taking more than a daily peek.

NOTE: (1) This is one of the new links we’ve added on our blogroll as we remove some other ones, and (2)Due to readers’ request we’ll be doing more of the Take A Peek posts, which we rotate to profile sites from all ends of the political spectrum.

Take A Peek…..

memeorandum has long been one of our favorite sites — and a site we’ve gotten lots of “Thank yous!” about when we’ve recommended it. And for good reason:

It’s a different kind of news aggregator, that takes a breaking story (hard news or opinon) that is getting a lot of attention, then gives you a cross section of bloggers representing various views. memorandum’s automatic software continually lists these “hot” stories and opinion pieces plus the ongoing cross section of links to discussions on blogs.

It can (a)save you tons of time and (b)let you read different opinions rather than just one viewpoint.

And now it has been revampe — and it has gotten more extensive and BETTER than ever with more links from stories and also links that feature bloggers. For instance, you if you CLICK HERE you’ll find the link to Arthur Chrenkoff’s poignant good bye to blogging.

What memorandum gives you is a constant, ongoing sources of stories and analysis pieces that are being widely read, plus the conversations that are enusing about them.

Memeorandum is an essential not just for bloggers but people who want to be informed citizens — MUST reading several times a day to find out not just what’s breaking but what people are thinking.

Take A Peek at THE NEW MEMEORANDUM and we know you’ll be taking more than a dozen daily peeks.

UPDATE: Lest we forget. We’re talking about memeorandum for politics but he also has a techn memeorandum version on the same site. Read this on the new site.

Take A Peek…..

….at a new website created by someone who says he’s a “doctor in DC” and is outraged by the failures of FEMA — so he has created a website to document them and the federal response to Hurricane Katrina in great detail: Fema Failures.

We are sure he’s going to get lots of material in coming weeks, despite what appears to be an effort to shift attention away from the poor initial federal response to the storm.

Take A Peek and we are sure you’re be wanting a lot of peeks each day (especially as we are told by adminisration officials and their defense lawyers talk show host allies that state and local officials are mostly to blame).

Fema Failures reports that it welcomes posting from bloggers and others who want to add info and commentary to its site on this important issue.

Take A Peek…..

News Unfiltered content is selected from the news feed of U.S. Newswire, a non-partisan provider of news and information from thousands of sources to the media and online worlds for more than 20 years. News Unfiltered is designed to provide a sampling of the top news of the day in its early stages, and is not intended as an editorial representation.

And it’s just what it says it is: a great menu of news and information that you can read UNFILTERED. For intance, one post yesterday was a transcript of President George Bush’s speech to the VFW. News Unfiltered is definitely a daily must read.

Take A Peek….

….at quite a remarkable undertaking: LeftyBlogs.com. It’s a news aggregator but almost breathtaking in its Internet and political concept.

The underlying idea is to put a lasting informational compenent into the progressive movement’s infrastructure. How to do it? By scanning 600 progresssive blogs — broken down into states so readers can find them quickly — every 10 minutes, and indexing them. Constantly.

At the top of the site it says:

There are a lot of great blogs out there – and it can be tough to track them all, even just in your home state. Here at LeftyBlogs, we’re building the one place you can go to stay on top of all the latest action alerts, news, gossip, and important info that every progressive activist needs.

Whatever the outcome may be, LeftyBlogs should have an impact on politics and on the blogosphere: it will quickly get out info to progressives and it’ll also likely strengthen some progressive blogs that’ll pick up new readers and links…and some GOPers will likely read them to keep tabs on the opposition…

Visit it for yourself, look around, and see if you agree. Take A Peek and — whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican — we’re sure you’ll be taking several daily peeks…

Take A Peek…..

Yes, there are indeed centrists out there. And in this day and age there are people who do believe in something called ETHICS. In fact, The Values Divide is written by Jason “The Wise Guy” Merchey. His site describeds him as “a philosophical thinker, author, speaker, and coaching consultant. Intrigued by philosophical and existential thought and ethics, Jason has been inspired to research, collect, and catalogue quotations from thousands of the world’s greatest thinkers.”

That means he’s SURE to have collected pages and pages of quotes by TMV…

If you read this new blog, it’s refreshing because you don’t see Merchey doing follow-the-leader on the big blog stories of the day, but he does touch on some of them. You also note that he doesn’t write in “blogspeak” where people copy other bloggers (We don’t, of course. Heh.)

It’s refreshing and — hold onto your hats — highly thoughtful. Take a peek and we know you’ll take a daily peek…….

Take A Peek…..

If you haven’t read Jarvis already, you should. With his extensive high-level experience in media writing and management (plus being the creator of People Magazine), Jarvis has a particularly fascinating viewpoint and often takes a long-view of events. But that’s not to say that he can’t give you a quite decisive take on a breaking event, controversy or anything else that comes up. Jarvis is a master at stepping back, looking at something and giving you a thoughtful (versus partisan-cliche-filled) opinion.]

All that being said, his previous site was content heavy but design challenged. This just-launched redesign is by his talented son. Just compare the new one with this.

So visit his new site to see the nice, clean, conventional blog design — and also begin reading Jarvis on a regular basis to get an overview perspective that’s quite rare on the Internet.

Take A Peek and we KNOW (no matter where stand politically) you’ll be taking a daily peek…

Take A Peek…..

We’ve been a fan of The Reaction and Stickings for some time. In fact, as of yesterday he will be one of our co-bloggers. From his base in Toronto, Stickings does a great job looking at and analyzing U.S. politics and sticking close to the center. The Reaction reacts to major news stories in a sober, thoughtful analytical way and peppers serious stories with some non-political ones as well.

Visit The Reaction and you’ll become a big fan like TMV. And we’re pleased that Michael Stickings is joining our group (our list is complete now and our co-bloggers — depending on the individual issue — go from center right to center to center left) of independent thinking co-bloggers here at The Moderate Voice.

Take A Peek…..

…at what will DEFINITELY become a DAILY MUST READ for bloggers and anyone interested in weblogs, The Hotline’s new Blogometer.

William Beutler, The Hotline’s senior writer, explains it better than we can in his highly welcome email which read, in part:

Since late March, the Blogometer has appeared as a section of the National Journal’s Hotline, a daily subscription-only Beltway tip sheet.

Now we’re taking it to the web where it will be posted every weekday around noon EST. We typically read 150+ blogs per day from across the political spectrum. Our primary focus is politics (always with an eye toward 2008) but we also cover issues particular to the blogosphere itself. For example, every Tuesday and Thursday we’ll run a new interview with a well-known political blogger.

Uh, oh, that let’s TMV out…

But we’ll still read it every single day. NOTE: We truly find it addicting. You will, too, if you…Take A Peek…

Take A Peek…..

What more can we say than that you see when you click on the link? There are so many posts/art pieces here that we love that we’d do an injustice to the site by offering you just one, or doing it as a mere post. So we urge you to click on it ASAP. And get ready for fun.

We guarentee you: Take A Peek and you’ll be taking a daily peek (as we will since we’re adding it to Other Voices on our blogroll, which we heavily use to do our posts).

Take A Peek…..

Reader response to Take A Peek has been great so we’re stepping up our efforts to offer you a diverse cross section of weblog tips. But don’t get the WRONG idea: Julien’s List is NOT a one-note blog. It’s chock full of links and excerpts from stories, sometimes put on the site at amazing speed — almost as soon as they appear on the wires.

It’s done by three contributors: Miss Julien in Miami, American On Line and by Holly in Cincinnati. We found out about this GREAT site from Holly, who read it — and later became a contributor. For quite some time (before she got involved with Julien’s List) she emailed TMV links to some superb stories. Her news judgement and sense of timing on stories is as good as any editor TMV worked for in his newspaper career. No exaggerating.

So when you visit Julien’s List you get its self-proclaimed viewpoint on certain issues, but you also get a ton of compelling and important news links, op-ed links and excerpts — much better and more complete selection than on many bigger well known blogs (including this one: we tend to write long pieces and often don’t get to some of Holly’s great news tips).

It’s of interest to anyone, no matter what their political views…and particularly to bloggers since they can get some good ideas for posts and links. Plus, when Julien’s List runs an original post on a topic, it’s from the heart.

And there’s a bonus: this RESOURCE LIST by Julien’s List that provides “resources on Religion, Culture, Ethics, Journalism and Politics are in no particular order.” This can save you TONS OF TIME (bookmark it).

Take A Peek at Julien’s List — and the RESOURCE LIST — and we’ll sure you’ll take much more than a daily peek….(more…)

Take A Peek…..

ALMTTR is a rarity among ideologically-grounded weblogs: it has a GREAT SENSE OF HUMOR. If you’re looking for a place to visit that gives you the conservative point of view (bluntly stated in most posts) PLUS authentic laugh out loud posts…you have to start visiting ALMTTR.

When TMV was guest blogging on Dean’s World, he’d actually surf the web more than he does on his own blog, looking for a mix of posts. And ALMTTR never failed to provide him something provocative or truly a riot.

You need to visit it on a regular basis to see what we mean. From time to time you’ll find an issue, story, or link dealt with in such a way that you will literally roar out loud…and in some cases hate yourself for doing so.

It’s great to see a serious site, written with much thought (even if you don’t agree with all of it) also have such a sense of joy in its writing (it is not a literary puking up of gotten-from-talk-show-cliches) and graphics (a lesson for us all). Even to its occasional unusual videos. ALMTTR has been one of our favorite from the first time we visited it — and we have had little email contact with its owner over the years. Except to express our admiration.

Take A Peek at ALMTTR and we KNOW you’ll be taking several daily peeks…

Take A Peek….

This is a jewel of a centrist weblog. Every day Common Sense Desk offers you some of the top stories or issues dominating the day’s news. Many (but not all) are done via punch “pointer posts” that direct you to a post CSD feels is worth reading, with their own pithy comment.

Common Sense Desk is a great road-map, a classy website and it….makes sense.

Take A Peek…..

at
…In Search of Utopia, a super-lively, info-packed liberal blog that you can find in our Left Voices blogroll colum.

ISOU is fascinating and fun for several reasons. And one of its most interesting facts is that it’s by David Anderson who runs Grupo Utopia Internationale S.A., a company based in Costa Rica. So the outspokesn Anderson has a unique perspective on a lot of issues.

You’ll never ever feel bored by ISOU. Even if you’re a conservative you’ll want to make it a daily read because Anderson always has provocative stuff and his comment boxes are active. (One of his posts today is an adult-oriented excerpt from a post on Karl Rove’s controversial comments). It’s one of those Internet gems that aspiring bloggers on the left and right might want to look at and emulate due to its mix of short and long-form posts and no-holds-barred viewpoints.

Take A Peek at In Search Of Utopia…and you may well find it..

NOTE: We’ve gotten many emails asking us to resume our Take A Peek feature, which we haven’t done in a while. It points readers to websites and blogs of ALL VIEWPOINTS. We rotate the mix. We will now try to run this feature at least every other day, due to readers’ requests.

Take A Peek…..

What’s refreshing is that this weblog does have writers who differ so greatly on how they perceive events. It’s posts are compact, but usually pack a punch. They give you excellent links, often to weblogs that you might not yet know about. This is important because it helps you discover some bloggers out there who may not be getting a lot of attention but DESERVE IT — as does Uncorrelated.

Take A Peek at Uncorrelated and we KNOW that you’ll be taking several daily peeks.

Take A Peek…..

Balloon Juice is the blog of one John Cole, a well-known conservative blogger…with an important distinction: he is one of the most independent-thinking bloggers on the Internet. On several key issues he has broken with his own party and taken a lot of heat from (and lost) readers. He analyzes each issue, then filters it through a series of values that don’t have as top priority winning an election.

Just a few minutes ago we linked to a post we found that was truly remarkable because it showed an independence of thought and considerable thought throughout the piece. You can agree with Cole or disagree with him but no one will ever call him a political hack. His only talking points are his own, coming from his own steadfast political values and conscience.

Plus, he’s fun to read. And we’ve discovered by our emails (urging us to do a Take A Peek on him) that he has an increasing number of people on the right, center and left who admire his political and intellectual honesty.

Yes, he may lose some readers who are mad because he won’t tell some of them what they want to hear. But we bet if you Take A Peek you’ll keep Taking A Peek and he’ll gain even more readers than he lost as people experience the excitement of reading a courageous, skillful, and idealistically consistent writer.

Take A Peek….

This is a truly funny satire of the heavily-hyped blog Huffington unveiled this week. Huffington’s blog took the usual hits from salaried (mainstream media) and nonsalaried (blogger) critics who probably had their reviews of it written in their minds (if not their computers in some cases) before it even came out. The bottom line is: her blog is a based on an interesting concept (big name journalism and show biz celebrities blog) and does have some potential. It has lots of stuff, and some of it is quite good. So we urge readers to Take A Peek, if they haven’t already.

But Huffington’s Toast is absolutely delicious. It’s a satire in the very best American satirical tradition. It’s FUNNY. There’s LOST of satire on it — from the “posts,” to what you get when you click on the contributors’ names. And the blogroll. Huffington’s Toast has some real and fake links if you go down their blogroll. TMV has added Huffington’s Toast for real in this site’s OTHER VOICES. We have The Huffington Post (which we visit each day) under that category, too.

Take A Peek…..

…at the Huffington Post. This is Arianna Huffington’s addition to the blogworld — a combination news site blog…except the bloggers are famous such as CBS news legend Walter Cronkite, comedian-writer Larry David, David Frum, Michael Isakoff.

You can’t dismiss this as being all “liberal” because there are some centrists in the mix. The Huffington Post unlike blogs has people who are ALREADY well known — and for things other than their blogging.

Can it succeed? There are some interesting posts on it. And if you click on the blog it has an extensive blogroll.

PREDICTION: It’ll be pooh-poohed by many bloggers but will probably carve out a niche. Maybe not a big one, but it’ll get readers. The reason: part of the attraction of reading blogs seems to be to discover newer sources of news and opinion. But, then, some of the famous bloggers could really get into it as time goes on and their already-established talents plus the liberating feeling of blogging could propel them to new heights.

BUT OTHERS MAY DISAGREE For instance, LA Weekly spent some glorious moments exploring The Huffington Post and announces: Arianna’s Blog Blows. Here’s one passage that shows the sheer enjoyment it’s critic found during her visit there:

This Web-site venture is the sort of failure that is simply unsurvivable, because of all the advance publicity touting its success as inevitable. Her blog is such a bomb that it’s the box-office equivalent of Gigli, Ishtar and Heaven’s Gate rolled into one. In magazine terms, it’s the disastrous clone of Tina Brown’s Talk, JFK Jr.’s George or Maer Roshan’s Radar. No matter what happens to Huffington, it’s clear Hollywood will suffer the consequences.

We don’t quite agree. IT’S TOO EARLY to pass judgement. Many blogs and news sites started out with growing pains.

For instance, TMV had its own rocky start before it was universally proclaimed as perfect in content, design, and absolutely persuasive arguments.

But a blog with celebrities and established journalists? Is THAT what people are clamoring for?? Judge for YOURSELF. Take YOUR OWN Peek.

Take A Peek…..

….at a new weblog that you are going to hear a LOT about. It’s called Virtual Scratchpad and it’s done by media and tech consultant Matt Sheffield, one of the key players in RatherBiased.Com, the website that doggedly followed and chronicled the career of CBS’s controversial Dan Rather and the media issues surrounding him.

After the Rathergate scandal and Rather was prematurely retired from the CBS Evening News (he was originally to have served there a bit longer but after the furor CBS moved up the retirement date) Sheffield was true to his word: RatherBiased.Com only lives on as a website documenting that era. He walked away from it and has been highly active in the Media Bloggers Association.

Sheffield’s main interests on his new blog will be “media, technology, and politics” — and if you Take A Peek today you’ll see how it’s already super-high quality in content and a MUST READ.

Take A Peek…..

…at Booker Rising, a site that can easily become one of your regular stops.

Booker Rising bills itself as a “News site for black moderates and black conservatives” but if you didn’t read that and visited the site you’d just figure it was one of the best summary sites on the entire Internet.

Booker Rising covers a wide variety of subjects. What’s wonderful about it is that it’s almost in the form of a daily briefing: it consists largely of extremely well edited excerpts from publications and blogs on many issues. It gives you the link if you want to read the whole piece or post, but it always manages to get that key quote out there that is the perfect summary.

It isn’t a good site — it’s a GREAT site. Take A Peek and we KNOW you’ll be taking a daily peek.

Take A Peek…

This is a weblog that is truly welcome in the blogosphere blogtopia — a new blog doesn’t seem to be frantically trying to score points for any party. That does NOT mean it’s afraid to take a stand or be critical.

The Debate Link is the handiwork of David Schraub, a 19-year-old student at Carleton College in scenic Northfield, Minnesota who eventually wants to teach law and politics. You really can’t predict exactly where The Debate Link will come down on all issues. It’s not chanting anyone’s mantra.

Take A Peek…

What makes this so intriguing — and welcome to centrists — is that it’s written by a former Democrat and a former Republican. They describe their mission as: “Walking Down the Middle of the Road… a former democrat and a former republican fighting to keep moderate politics and centrist views alive.”

And if you read it, The Yellow Line is not afraid to take stands. But the stands aren’t taken with adjective-hurling or demonizations. Al Stewart Carl and Joe Weedon step back and analyze. So The Yellow Line may be the yellow line down the middle of the road but they’re not too yellow to take firm positions, after showing you how they think things through.

And it won’t spare Drudge’s sacred cows. Denton says Sploid’s politics are “anarcho-capitalist” — think libertarian without the wacky shit. They’ll go after the stupid and slothful on the left and the right and won’t be afraid — unlike Drudge — to call media on its fawning over the pope.

Sploid is being written/edited/spat out by Choire Sicha, former Gawker… and by Ken Layne, everybody’s favorite blogger and a founder of the lost and lamented online Tabloid who hasn’t blogged in too f’ing long… and Henry Seltzer, a Gawker Media stalwart. This is an incredible team.

….Drudge is being very huffy about his new competitors. He sounds just like big media when he came along. Well, of course, he is big media now.

Indeed, there are a lot of folks (TMV is one of them) who feel guilty after looking at The You Know Who Report because we’ve been burned so often on the exclusive “reports” (which often are supposed news pieces seemingly source by political operatives trying to influence news coverage or the political scene.) Also, that site, as Jarvis notes, has its sacred cows — or, perhaps we should say sacred elephants. That makes it less compelling for independents who run by someone who clearly has his favorites.

Of course, this isn’t to say Sploid doesn’t have a viewpoint which it explains this way:

Sploid is a news site with a tabloid mentality — top stories up top, played big, as fast as they break. If there’s a political line, it’s anarcho-capitalist: sniffing out hypocrisy and absurdity, whether from salon left or religious right.

Lively journalist Ken Layne’s participation makes it a MUST READ in itself. TMV ran a modest blogad on his old blog site.

We can assure you TMV will Take A Peek at Sploid several times a day and knows of many on the left, center and right who will do so as this new, lively alternative to a site that is Big Internet Media hits the scene. And we’re sure Sploid will be Big Internet Media very quickly.

Take A Peek…

This is a gem of a blog by Jay Rosen, Associate Professor, and former chairman, of New York University’s Department of Journalism. Rosen keeps a constant watch on press issues, particularly the development of blogging as a new form of journalism and its impact on newspapers and broadcasting.

It’s a serious blog with a specific mission — and written in a highly readable newspaper style. Rosen’s site is a MUST for those who study or are merely interested in press and blog issues. And it’s so cutting edge that Rosen recently received the ultimate compliment: getting invoted on Jon Stewart’s show on Comedy Network.

Rosen tackles an issue, giving you tons of media and blog links with some of the best roundups of ideas and quotes from blogs and news outlets on the ‘net.

TMV got his Masters in Journalism from the Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. He wishes he had had Rosen as a professor — but due to the Internet he has something nearly as good: instant access every day to Jay Rosen’s content, style and insightful analysis.

Take A Peek at Press Think today and you’ll be taking a peek every day.

Take A Peek…..

Due to time constraints TMV recently had to leave the Watcher of Weasels Council which runs a weekly linkfest and votes on the best posts. The Education Wonks is on the council and became one of our favorite sites.

Politics makes up the bulk of what many people on weblogs write about. But here’s a blog that focuses on issues and stories related to education and does a superb job of it. It’s a pleasure to read because of not just its subject matter but the way it’s written.

Take A Peek…..

It’s actually a part of the highly addicting video blogger blog Crooks
and Liars. But it’s a stand-alone page of the blog that gives you an excellent daily roundup of some items on various blogs — and is a great way for new bloggers to get noticed (send them a post you feel good about) since it’s always looking for new material, especially from good new sites.

We like it so much we’ve added it to Other Voices on our blogroll and will Take A Peek each day. We know you will, too..

Take A Peek….

…at Memeorandum. In, fact, I think we already urged you to take a peek….well, take one AGAIN.

This news aggregator uses automated software to present readers with a fascinating concept. It groups stories that are getting heavy traffic with a cross section of bloggers from all over the political spectrum.

So you can see what the popular stories are (many are analyses and op-ed pieces but there is breaking news). And you can see a list of some of the bloggers from the left, center and right who are writing about them and click on their names to see what they wrote. It’s a way to keep tabs on the popular stories and the way they’re being analyzed on weblogs…and to get a taste of people of differing ideologies. Take a peek and you’ll take a peek several times a day…

Take A Peek….

I became a huge fan of Grant’s and our other two guest bloggers Greg Piper and Andrew Quinn by reading their blogs. I admired the way they wrote and the fact that they were independent thinkers who weren’t writing following any predictable party line.

In the case of Grant, he truly has a unique perspective. He’s a scientist living and working in France. He often picks topics no one else does. And he tends to be delightfully philosophical — making his site one that’s a Disneyland for people who like to think.

You might not agree with him on everything (as almost no one totally agrees with TMV) but Grant’s centrist blog is still one of the best kept secrets on the Internet…and we’re betting it won’t be for long. It’ll increasingly be noticed and not due to random fate but to the quality and originality of its thought.

Take A Peek…..

…at the latest news aggregator patterned after the You-Know-Who report.

It’s Dilby News Monitor, a superb news aggregator set up just like the other one — but it seems acutely careful not to pitch a specific ideological line. You can go to it at any time and find it updated with the latest stories and links. It is truly habit forming.

But it also takes the concept of a news aggregator a bit farther: it has a HUGE live streaming video link section — linked to sites all over the world. It has other links you don’t find on most news aggregators (sites for kids, important 800 numbers, links to gas prices, live video cam of volcanos and cities, even some joke site links).

In short, it’s a treasure chest…and we’re SURE that once you visit it you’ll Take A Peek many times during each day. A MUST VISIT.

Take A Peek…..

…at Watching America, a MUST DAILY READ for anyone interested in foreign affairs — or how America and American foreign policy is perceived abroad.

This well-edited and presented new site is a welcome addition not only to the Internet but to the daily reading routine of anyone who wants to be properly informed. It contains some of the best news articles and opinion pieces published abroad — and many of them appear in English translation for the first time, and only on this site.

The Moderate Voice is truly excited about Watching America and intends to read it and link to it often. If you want a balanced perspective, it’s required reading.

Take A Peek….

…at a blog representing yet another sign of how the blog revolution is spreading far and wide.

It’s this blog by Jerry Brown, Oakland’s high profile mayor and former governor of California. In a way you have to wonder what took him so long: his personality is perfectly suited to doing a lively blog. Our only complaint so far is that his posts have been so limited. But it is worth taking a peek…and taking a peek each day.

Take A Peek….

…at The Statesman, the latest blog from Justin Delabar, an Orlando-based political science and interational relations student who specializes in foreign policy issues and is interning for a U.S Senator.

Delabar’s Digital Dissent was a breath of fresh air to the Internet when he debuted it as his blog. He later converted it into a kind of group blog, with contributors who were Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians and Green Party members. It’s still a good, serious read — into ideas instead of adjective hurling and invective.

In his new spin-off blog, which is his own blog, he goes back to what he loves best — writing on and analyzing foreign affairs.

Take A Peek….

Blue And Red is a noble Internet experiment. In these days of a seeming war between left weblogs and right weblogs — mirroring in all of its intensity the bitter partisanship that exists between both major political parties — it seeks to be an authentic oasis of intelligent, issue-oriented discussion.

Blue And Red is the brainchild of one Laramie Taylor, alias Chairman of Iron Blog, a blog that successfully staged Internet debates that pitted people from three ideologies (usually Democrat, Republican and Libertarian) against each other. The Chairman issued a ton of rules for judges and debaters on Iron Blog — all designed to lift the quality of debate on the Internet so it focused on pondering nuts-and-bolts issues rather than hurling cutesy or not-so-cutesy adjectives.

Red And Blue debuted Monday with little publicity. It seeks to present regularly scheduled columns (TMV has agreed to write one), forums…and the return of Iron Blog next month for still more intelligent debates via posts.

If you’re into thinking about issues, Red And Blue — completely written by volunteer staffers of all backgrounds and ages who truly believe politics doesn’t have to be all bile — is for you.

Take A Peek…

…at some Drudge Report-format clones on both sides of the political aisle. All of them are well done and almost addicting.

Wes Roth’s conservative The Roth Report is going great-guns since he changed his format in December.

And then there is the Drudge Retort, an excellent an stylistically near carbon copy of The-You-Know-Who Report, except it’s not conservative and doesn’t run a lot of inside story reports that often seem to be sourced by White House political operatives. It’s links are usually to solid stories.

Raw Story bills itself as an alternative on the left to you-know-who and has lots of original reporting.

BuzzFlash Report is among the most comprehensive sites on the left that provides an alternative to Drudge.

And finally there’s a new favorite of ours, the conservative Hundred Percenter, which recently came to the forefront in defending a 13-year-old blogger who had been lambasted on the Internet by an adult blogger who should have chosen his words more carefully. It’s a highly lively site with great links.

Visit them for the info. And if you see something you disagree with remember this: different ideas don’t cause brain cancer.

Take A Peek….

….at two SUPERB blog news aggregators.

First, there’s the new blog Pundit Drome which is super cool. It displays boxes showing 30 blogs from varying viewpoints (TMV is highly honored to be one of them) and lets you view these constantly updated blogs on an easy to read screen. This is a GREAT place to check out a wide variety of ideas — and because it’s constantly updated you can visit often. We just discovered it and it’s already a favorite.

A similar concept with a different layout, different mix of varying viewpoint blogs (but some overlaps) can be seen by visiting the great Centerfield News Aggregator, which bills itself as "A Politically Balanced Aggregator of Centrist, LIberal and Conservative Blogs" — and it is. It’s the product of Centerfield’s Rich Heller. Once again, it’s constantly updated. Scroll down and at any minute of the day you can read what many different blogs are covering.

Both of these are worth bookmarking and visiting often. They save you a lot of time because you can read an excellent cross section of weblogs in one spot.HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Take A Peek….

….at the newly redesigned website Digital Dissent. It’s the brainchild of Justin Delabar, a moderate Democrat, who has joined forces with a Libertarian and a Republican to create a SPECIAL kind of open source politics blog. Delabar writes:

The internet is a land of bitter partisanship; it’s all about Republicans v. Democrats, Conservatives v. Liberals, Libertarians, Socialists, Greens, etc. v. Everyone. Why not create a site that attempts to bring these groups together to discuss, intelligently, policy and politics? Create a place where snark is not mightier than the message of cooperation; let’s stop fighting each other and discuss actual ways to make this country better.

That’s obviously a tall order, but I’m willing to give it a shot. The Drupal engine allows incredible flexibility for just this sort of idea. Users can have individual blogs and can have their entries also posted to the main page. A encyclopedia module can be added in order to put together combined policy iniatives, which can be started by members or site administrators. The possibilities are truly endless. Suggestions are much welcomed, especially it seems as if there’s very little this site engine cannot do. I’m convinced it can make cappuccino on command, even.

Take A Peek….

This automated news grouper gives you some top stories, analysis pieces and op-ed pieces. You can click on the original piece. And underneath it, it gives you some links to bloggers representing a wide variety of political view points (The Moderate Voice is one of them from the center) that were selected at random.

The net result is a news aggregator that lets you immediately see key issues, top breaking news stories and important op ed pieces (left and right) plus a good cross-section of weblog reaction to it. It is a MUST for news junkies, opinion-piece junkies…and bloggers.

FOOTNOTE: There are other excellent news aggregators and we will suggest you Take A Peek at them too in future weeks.

Take A Peek….

First, Take A Peek at The Drudge Retort, a liberal weblog. It has been around for a while and has gotten quite a nice following.

Next, look at conservative blogger Wes Roth’s new site. He converted his traditional blog into a Drudge-like site less than a month ago and has been getting lots of readers.

In a sense, it’s puzzling why Matt Drudge’s format of just links, coupled with some original reports (in Drudge’s case reports that do not always hold up and just disappear if they don’t hold up or pan out) has not been used by more people on the Internet. Think about it: everyone uses the same basic blogging format, give or take some design differences. While it’s unlikely anyone will come close to the original Drudge in hits, these two sites do offer alternatives and a comfy place for those who like TDR’s format. (The Moderate Voice visits both often).